Create Variable Action

Description

Creates an AutoMate variable, which can be used to store dynamic values for use in any step.

Practical Usage

Variables are used as storage mechanism to store data while a task is running. For more information see Variables. Once a variable is created, its contents can be displayed at runtime by placing the variable name in percent signs (e.g. %myvarname% will automatically be converted it it's contents at runtime).

Parameters

General Tab

Name

Text, Required
MARKUP: NAME="thecurrentdate"

Specifies the name of the variable to create. It is important that this value is unique, descriptive and does not conflict with any BASIC scripting keywords (examples of common conflicts include: date, day, week, etc).

Variable is read only

Yes/No, Optional - Default no
MARKUP: READONLY="yes"

Specifies that the variable is not able to be set to a value other than that specified in the Initial Value parameter.  Selecting this option is equivalent to creating a task specific constant.

Variable is private

Yes/No, Optional - Default no
MARKUP: PRIVATE="yes"

Specifies that the variable is only available to the current task and not to sub tasks started with the Start Task action. If this value is left unchecked (default) the specified variable will be available to sub tasks.

Value

Text, Optional - Default (blank)
MARKUP: ...>The current date is %Format(Now())%</AMVARIABLE>

Specifies the value that the variable should be set to initially. As with all parameters, this value may be literal or an expression (if surrounded by percent % signs).

Treat as parameter

Yes/No, Required
MARKUP: ISPARAMETER="YES"

Specifies that the variable will only be created if it does not already exist. This is particularly useful when a task may have parameters passed to it at runtime (that is, variables of the same name will be created automatically) but a default value should be assumed when debugging and parameters are not present.

Description

Text, optional default (none)
MARKUP: DESCRIPTION="This variable holds the date"

An optional text description that describes the purpose of the variable, this information will be displayed at design time in the Debug | Variables information window.

Notes

Using Variables
All variables must be created before they can be used. This is done using the Create Variable <AMVARIABLE> action. Once created, variables can be set using the Set Variable <AMSET> action, or by certain actions that support populating variables. To get data out of the variables, in any action parameter, simply surround the variable name with percentage % signs (e.g. %varname%). Remember not to use percentage signs when specifying the name of a variable to populate, percentage signs are only needed to get data out.

Standard Error Handling Options
This action also includes the standard "Error Causes" and "On Error" failure handling options/tabs

More on Error Handling Options

Variables and Expressions
All text fields allow the use of expressions by surrounding the expression in percentage signs (example: %MYVARIABLE%, %Left('Text',2)%). To help construct these expressions, a popup expression builder is available in all these fields by pressing F2.
More on variables...
More on expressions...
More on the expression builder...

Example

<AMVARIABLE NAME="MYVARIABLE">Sets the variable to this value</AMVARIABLE>